After skirting inspection, landlord faces tragedy

There’s a reason the city has a law on the books requiring rental dwellings to be inspected, and that’s to prevent a loss of life such as that which occurred during an apartment fire on James Street early Sunday, city officials said.Timothy Klotz, the owner of the 12-unit apartment building at 102 Ja...

There’s a reason the city has a law on the books requiring rental dwellings to be inspected, and that’s to prevent a loss of life such as that which occurred during an apartment fire on James Street early Sunday, city officials said.

Timothy Klotz, the owner of the 12-unit apartment building at 102 James St., failed to register the structure as required by the city’s 2006 Rental Dwellings Inspections Law even after he was fined and ordered to do so by a local court, fire officials said.

Now, four people are dead after a fire raged through the three-floor structure, and fire investigators are trying to determine what might have sparked the deadly blaze.

While it is too early to say whether a lack of inspection or codes violations played any role in the fire, city officials nevertheless find it troubling that Klotz’s James Street property – like nearly a dozen more he owns – was not in compliance with city law.

“I’ve heard the name Timothy Klotz several times, and it’s never been in a positive way,” said Common Councilman Bill Phillips, who represents the district where Sunday’s fire occurred.

“He’s always been a nuisance, and we’ve had problems with most of his properties.”

Klotz was contacted by the O-D on Sunday afternoon, but he did not return phone calls seeking comment.

While no officials have blamed Klotz for Sunday’s fire, they did note that his lack of compliance with the inspection law raises doubts about whether current penalties are severe enough to make landlords take that law seriously.

Klotz was ticketed in April 2008 for failing to register the James Street building with the Utica Fire Department’s rental dwelling inspection program, city Chief Fire Marshal Raymond Beck said. Klotz pleaded guilty in June 2008, was fined $100 and was ordered to register the property within 10 days.

It was not clear Sunday whether any action had been taken by the city after those 10 days elapsed.

What was clear, said Phillips, D-5, is that Klotz didn’t get the message. He suggested that City Court should consider stricter penalties, including jail time, in such cases.

“It’s really unfortunate that somebody has to die to get some attention on this matter, but I think now you’ll see some tougher rules and maybe some judges will now see violations of codes as a major problem,” Phillips said. “In the past, since it’s not murder, and it’s not drug-related, it’s usually been put to the bottom of the priority scale.”

Page 2 of 2 - As firefighters worked to remove some of the victims’ bodies from the smoldering building Sunday, several tenants recalled the broken windows, unlit hallways and faulty appliances they sometimes dealt with while living there.

The tenants said Klotz was slow to address these conditions.

“He was not 100 percent on keeping things going,” tenant Gail Baker said. “He’d fix things, but he took his sweet time.”

Utica fire Chief Russell Brooks said mandated inspections are designed to keep landlords current on maintenance and to ensure resident safety.

“We have those inspections because 90 percent of the fires we have occur in these types of rental dwellings,” Brooks said. “It is an issue, and sometimes the consequences of not complying are property loss, and sometimes they are people’s lives.”

Like Phillips, Brooks said the fines should be more severe to ensure compliance. While current fines are minimal, Phillips said, some landlords continue to gripe about the financial strains such fees impose.

An O-D investigation published in July 2008 focused on Klotz’s many failures to comply with city codes laws. It found that he often would pay meager fines for such violations, and some council members back then said the city needed more teeth in the law to handle such cases.

When asked Sunday afternoon if the city needed better enforcement of its fire code laws, Mayor David Roefaro pointed to the ongoing investigation into the James Street fire.

“I can’t comment on anything at this point in time, pending investigation,” Roefaro said.